Days Back in Lahti
I enter my room a short while, remembering the good old days and say “Well, I guess a few moments of nostalgia won’t hurt”. I began to search for my laptop, power it up and plug the charger to the plug on the wall and the other end to my laptop. “Alright…let’s do it chronologically… gee I hope I still remember my childhood days ! Hahaha” I opened Microsoft Word, took me a few seconds to load by the way, before I started to flash back into my past… and write to you, about my story; my childhood days, back in Lahti, back with my ma and pa.
The day is 12th of March 1995, the day that was said to enter the world. My vision is completely blurry; I can’t see a damn thing in this state. My ma said I coo and cry as well as struggling to reach out to my ma and pa. They both hug me warmly that day, the day my roads for tomorrow begin.
Days after, I am laid down on the crib, overlooking the window of my house. My mother is the woman I often see and greet every day, counted to my father. At first it didn’t make so much sense, because…why did he leave so often? But of course, mom told me that my dad needs to go to work, which of course I don’t know what is “work” and why does my dad need to do this thing called “work”.
A few days that felt like weeks, I finally got a taste of the outside world. Apparently there is wet stuff coming down from the skies, which my dad said to me: “see that my son? It’s called rain. The water comes down to the earth, from the skies.” Which is considerably rich information for me yet makes me question, I saw dad washing dishes with mom, so I guess water doesn’t always come from sinks, neat! Not until there’s this big, furry, and awfully deformed being come at me, seemingly smelling my feet and lowering its pointy ‘ears’ at me. My dad says: “Son, meet Rubin, Rubin is a dog. Bark bark!” He chuckled, followed by the dog’s barking, which made me realize there’s more than mom and dad in here, how interesting to see a living breathing being in the house that is not the same shape and size as my dad is.
Days passed, months passed, and of course a year passed. I am in my house again, this time it’s a bit crowded, in my opinion…a lot crowded. I wonder to myself “Gee, who are these people? Where do they come from? What are their purposes to be here? How could there be so many people? Why are they different to one another?” My mind is basically blown and completely dumbfounded, even mom carry me just to greet another one that is like me, a baby, but has some fur and pointy ears like Rubin the dog has, my mind is completely scrambled like what mom usually gave me; wheat porridge. As time pass by, there’s this giant thing that mom brought to me which I might add, as the same size as I am, but has tiny lights on the top of it, I guess this is a lamp? But how odd, the light moves! As if it’s dancing on top of a stick that is pointing out of this big body of lamp. “Matti, this is a cake! Your birthday cake”, she says. I say to myself “What is a birthday cake?! What is this THING that is dancing on top of my cake?” I try to poke at it just like dad does to see if the lights are okay, but dad quickly pulls my hand away from it before explaining to me like a brilliant genius: “Matti! That’s not a light bulb; it’s a candle, lit with fire.” I was completely fascinated by this fire dancing on my cake, just like in the cartoons that papa used to show me. Turns out candles are real, so do cakes and everything I’ve seen on the TV. After a long day, which drained my energies a lot to the point I fell asleep on the couch next to Rubin the dog. Mom said at the time I was carried to the crib where I was before with my dad, wow, genius and full of kindness at the same time, he truly is a fatherly figure for me.
Years passed, seasons passed, and then I reached the age of seven, which I might add that the number seven is a Jewish lucky number, as said by my neighbor kid Henikh, who is a Jew. I for one is a good kid with a deeply kind and open Christian faith, hearing Henikh tell me stories about the Bible, Father Abraham, and Jesus makes me feel like we’re both correlative and has the same lane of faith. Anyway, about school, The only part I’m good at aside from washing hands before I eat lunch is the subject about Science, Socials, and Gardening, yes those three, come on now, everyone has a hobby of playing and crying, as well as Mathematics and what not, why not science and all that ? Clearly there’s nothing wrong with that. I remember the night my mom kept being angry at me for not able to answer the problem that asks for ten divided by zero. Ten divided by zero? I don’t know, mom! I’m not Einstein or Thomas Edison! So I said “Infinity?” She sighed in relief or anger before patting my back. “Jesus, I don’t know the answer, am I going to get my ration of cheese bread and pastry limited again? It’s the third time this week!” I say to myself through my mind before she walks to the kitchen’s fridge, going back with my favorite cheese bread and pastry. Believe me, I almost wet my pants when she waltz out like that, made me think whenever I see Ten divided by zero is the absolute doom bringer for me, just like in the movies where there’s this one hero defeat a giant robot with a question similar to what mom ask me during homework session.
It’s summer, here in Finland, summer is nothing but rain, rain, and sunshine. My dad wore a jacket and some long pants, mom wore some jeans and coat before taking a basket and a backpack. My dad? He brought a rifle, his hunting rifle, and a portable grill. We sat in the car for merely hours before we arrived at a picnic spot, I asked my dad, “Dad, I was wondering when can I get a rifle like you. I want to be a hunter like you !”, he then said after a short chuckle: “Matti, I’m not a hunter, I’m a farmer and a lumberjack”. I realized that now, and settled down the tablecloth that we used to sit down and have our picnic about a few steps away from a pine tree in a nice spot near a lake. I grab a cup and fill it with hot black tea, I scoop about one and a half spoonfuls of honey, a dark brown one, and mix it in my tea.
My father then said to me in a happy and cheery voice real loud, since he’s far off from me, “Matti! Come! Let’s go for a target practice!” I smile and settle down my tea and quickly run to my dad, he hands me down his rifle and makes some adjustments to his “scopes”. He knelt down since he’s taller than I am, and held my elbows and shoulders so I can get at least a stable grip on my rifle. “Alright, to use a scope, close the eye that your arm used to hold the rifle, not the one holding the trigger”, right then, I go to close my eye and act like those in the cartoons again. “Good, now steady your arms so your cross-hairs don’t move or flinch so often”, said my dad. I of course followed his instructions and then he placed a beer can that he finished before on a tree stump and ran back to me. “Okay my boy, aim for the beer can, when you’re ready, just pull the trigger”, he say again, after some reassurance to myself that took me a second, I pull the trigger that made the rifle push my right shoulder and upper side of my chest back, I heard a ‘CLANK!’ sound, as my father held my back from falling, “Good work sports! How do you feel?" I definitely feel the sense of thrill, confusion, and surprise at the same time. I can feel my heartbeat rise and the sound of a flash-bang effect from the games in my ears. “Dad! That spooked me! Why don’t you use silencers?! Well, it’s nice to do that though, I want to do more!” I say with a slight show of cowardice before changing into a more cheerful kiddo tone. After a jolly shooting until my mom called me and dad to come over to eat, we sat down on the picnic spot before mom starting to share us Karelian pastry, with egg on top and some nice salted tuna, on the side we also have some cherry pie, lamb blood sausage, and some sort of salmon soup. We had an enjoyable day there, such memories just made me remember the times I had with those I love, the days where I smile and enjoy life side by side with my parents, and of course our lovely pet dog; Rubin.
Years passed, and the day I remember in this part of childhood is my first graduation day from elementary school, tense and somehow sad at the same time. The reason why I felt so tense about the graduation day is not the announcement, but the part where I have to stand in front of the stage with the school’s principal, yes, I had a stage fright. When they took a picture of me, I had upward curved eyebrows, a faint smile, and a fairly rigid figure.
Now, the sad feelings came after this “photo-shoot” we did before, I saw my friends together with me, we cheered and played tag one more time before we moved up a grade from the title ‘little guy’ to ‘somewhat bigger little guy’. I remember the day we ran through the vast gardens and small forest the elementary school has, just to play tag! Imagine the energy we had just to chase a friend, I feel like I walk and run for what? 10 meters? No! But half-a-kilometer worth. As soon as my mom said “Alright Matti, time to say bye-bye”, I just feel like this tag will be our last or maybe not for long because I heard some even moved to the same school as I do. I bid farewell to my friends and they do the same, one by one they part ways, into their high schools.
At this point on, I began to feel so sleepy, it is night after all. So it'll be best to just sleep now. I put my hands down on the table, walking out to the bathroom to wash my face, wash my teeth, and of course I yawned and went to bed, adjusting my pillow and put that comfortable blanket on me, slowly closing my eyes only to remember "Oh right ! Alarm!" Heh, silly me. I put the alarm on 05:00 AM. I plug my phone charger on the electric plug, and the other end to my phone. I bed down in relief tonight, slowly shutting my eyes and truly began to sleep.
